The mature Nietzsche once described himself as “Wagner's antipode.”
In his own view, he was as opposed to Wagner as the North Pole is to
the South. Moreover, it was his break with Wagner in the mid 1870s
that finally allowed Nietzsche to find his own identity, to develop his
own intellectual personality and mission. In the 1880s Nietzsche continued to take Wagner seriously even as a fierce opponent. He looked upon
Wagner as a temptation he had to overcome, as a servitude and even as
an “infection” or “disease” he had to experience before liberating himself and coming into his own. Under the heading of “Wagner,” Nietzsche did not only mean the music dramas, but a whole complex of
attitudes and a worldview, which included romanticism, Schopenhauer's
negation of the will, German nationalism, and anti-Semitism, among
others. Similarly, in calling Wagner his “antipode” Nietzsche intended
to dissipate all these intertwined shadows—including anti-Semitism—
which Wagner's domineering figure had cast in his way. For Nietzsche, his overcoming of Wagner was at the same time a powerful selfovercoming for Nietzsche—so deep had Wagner penetrated his own
self, albeit as an alien and self-alienating force.

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